How To Use a Text Field As a Reference Field

While it is best practice to store Salesforce Reference Ids in Reference Fields, there are a handful of situations where a Reference Id may be stored in a Text field.

By default, CopyStorm/Restore will use Reference Field metadata to determine whether or not a field contains a Reference Id, and which table(s) the Id may reference. In cases where Reference Ids are stored in Text fields CopyStorm/Restore can be configured to treat the field as a Reference Field, which will cause CopyStorm/Restore to:

  • Take the reference information into account when determining the table restore order.
  • Use CopyStorm/Restore’s Old Id to New Id mapping to ensure referential integrity when uploading field values for the Text field.

To configure CopyStorm/Restore to treat a Text field as a Reference field:

  1. Create a file [CopyStormRestore]/config/CopyForceMetadata.xml
  2. Use the following template to populate the file:
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